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MP trailed in wards of senior SAD-BJP leaders
Post polls, Bhagwant
Mann, Modi a hit on social media
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Rainwater harvesting project poses threat to motorists
Crime against women on the rise in the district
PRTC employees may stage state-level protest
Manpreet Badal thanks
supporters
Dust storm rocks city
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MP trailed in wards of senior SAD-BJP leaders
Bathinda, May 18 The results laid to rest all the conjectures in the corridors of power that the Congress workers and leaders were not whole-heartedly supporting the Congress-PPP-CPI joint candidate, Manpreet Singh Badal. A few weeks before the election day, Jassi had to hold a special press briefing to clear his name from the controversy that he was not happy with Manpreet being a joint candidate. Interestingly, the accusation now holds true for some of the BJP leaders who, it seems, didn’t pull out all plugs to ensure victory for the SAD-BJP joint candidate Harsimrat Kaur Badal. Even at the booths which fell under the wards to which some senior SAD-BJP leaders belonged, Harsimrat Kaur Badal trailed. In Ward No. 1 of former BJP deputy mayor, Gurinder Pal Kaur Mangat, the SAD-BJP alliance candidate trailed by a huge margin of 589 votes. An even bigger margin was registered from Ward No. 18 of former BJP senior deputy mayor Tarsem Goyal. Congress-PPP-CPI candidate Manpreet Singh Badal led by 600 votes from this ward. In Ward No. 14 of the former mayor Baljit Singh Beerbehman, Harsimrat trailed by 402 votes while the credit for the lead gained by Manpreet Singh Badal went to the general secretary of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) Harminder Singh Jassi’s close aide, Rupinder Bindra. The MP also trailed by 172 votes in Ward No. 18 of the BJP’s former municipal councillor Mitthu Ram. She trailed by 900 votes in Ward No. 16 of the vice-president of the Youth Akali Dal Raju Mann and by 939 votes in Ward No. 9 of BJP’s former councillor Asesar Paswan. Senior Congress leaders and workers in the Bathinda Urban segment stated that the urban voters had always favoured the Congress giving a lead of 16,000 votes to Raninder Singh in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections when the Congress leader Harmander Singh Jassi was the MLA and a lead of 29,500 votes to Manpreet Singh Badal even in the presence of a SAD MLA, Sarup Chand Singla. SAD, BJP blame
game begins
Due to lack of coordination between the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) SAD candidate Harsimrat Badal trailed from Bathinda city by a huge margin. SAD president and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal had fielded his team from Delhi headed by SAD Delhi leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa to campaign in the wards of the city. Due to this, municipal councilors of the SAD and the BJP were irked as to why the party had sent the delegation bypassing them to campaign and were feeling sidelined or were thinking that the party didn’t have faith in them. BJP leader and former MC Mukesh Sood said the campaign by the Delhi team headed by Manjinder Sirsa in the city failed as all the member of the team were from Delhi and they didn’t know anybody here. SAD youth leader Chamkaur Mann admitted that lack of coordination between the BJP and SAD was the main reason for the debacle in the city as they failed to hold a joint co-ordination committee during the campaigning. He also blamed the district administration officers for misguiding the Badal family over the project, as there are many projects in the city which were started seven years ago and are still lying incomplete. BJP leader and former senior deputy Mayor Tarsem Goyal blames the interference of the SAD in the BJP wards for the party’s debacle in the city. He said that a team from Delhi and MLA Sarup Chand Singla interfered in their ward due to which Harsimrat Badal trailed badly in the city. SAD former MC Rajinder Sidhu said six to seven persons were fielded above each Municipal councilor and they were just busy in arranging for tea and food for them. He citied another reason for the huge gap in the city: that they are not allowed to meet Deputy Chief Minister and the Member of Parliament due to which they could not perceive the ground reality, as people who are close to them, keep them away from the actual situation. |
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Post polls, Bhagwant
Mann, Modi a hit on social media
Bathinda, May 18 As on the counting day, Modi has created another record on social networking sites soon after his victory has been re-tweeted over 67,500 times, making it the most re-tweeted tweet in history. Modi even replied directly on Twitter to congratulatory tweets from world leaders and influential Indians, from the UK Prime Minister David Cameron to superstar Rajnikant, as well as to tweets from the rival parties. One letter to Narendra Modi is doing the rounds these days in the region on WhatsApp in which it’s written, “We, the citizens of India, voted for you for the good and bright future of our country. We have believed you and have given you 60 months to rule the country. “Now, we expect uninterrupted 24 hours of electricity supply at Rs 3 as residential and Rs 5 as commercial rates, pure drinking water, single tax system without books, no FDI in retail, free education, home loan at 6 per cent, business loan at 8 per cent per annum, speedy trains, proper roads which connect each and every village of India. The police should be citizen- friendly, dollar prices you have to bring to Rs 35 in next five years, which will automatically reduce the prices of gold, gas, petrol, etc.” Aam Aadmi Party leader Bhagwant Mann, who won the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat by a record margin of over 2 lakh votes, is also not far behind on social networking applications and sites. Bhagwant’s pictures wrestling with SAD candidate Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa with a slogan in Punjabi, “Manj ke rakhta na 2 lakh te” is a hit on WhatsApp. Mandeep Singh, a resident, said the social media had played a great role in the thumping victory of the BJP with their slogan ‘Ab Ki Baar Modi Sarkaar’. |
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Rainwater harvesting project poses threat to motorists
Bathinda, May 18 The potholed road and parks which remain unfilled during the evening hours virtually became a cobweb for the commuters and children playing in the parks. The problem aggravates when it gets dark and vehicles ply on the road. The local residents accused the authorities of not displaying any signage of ‘work in progress’ or any other warning signs. Begun around five months ago, the projects, as claimed by the authorities-will complete before May 30. The aim of these projects is proper draining of the clean rain water to raise the water table and to get rid of the water accumulating on the roads. An elderly couple travelling on a mobike fell in one of the pits dug on a 60-foot road while they were on their way to pay obeisance at a religious place. “We panicked after hearing the jarring noise of the vehicle as everyone rushed out from their homes to see what had happened. The mobike fell over the elderly man and his wife started bleeding profusely,” said Jeet Singh, a resident of Model Town Phase-III. He said the workers deployed hardly pay attention towards the safety of the commuters and always keep the water pipes in a haphazard manner by the roadside. The water pipes are joined by an underground water tank between the road and a nearby park so that the water accumulated during the rainy season on road could percolate. “Though the initiative is good, the irritatingly and mismanaged slow work irks residents. The otherwise neat and clean area where there is ample space for parking vehicles is now always full of dust and loads of soil all around,” said another resident Jaswinder Singh. He added that now, there is hardly any place to park the vehicles. The local residents demanded immediate completion of the project and sought sprinkling of water to suppress the dust. He alleged that the water tankers parked in the middle of the roads pose a threat to commuters and the children fall into the potholes in the park. As per officials of the Bathinda Development Authority (BDA), there are five such projects underway in the area with
an expenditure of Rs 5 lakh on each project. XEN (BDA) Vasudev Anand, feigning ignorance over the problems faced by the residents, expressed concern over their safety, especially the children, commuters and the elderly. He said the project was aimed at dislodging the water that accumulates during the rainy season in low-lying areas. He assured of paying a visit to the affected areas including the 60-foot road and the Dadi Pota Park. |
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Crime against women on the rise in the district
Bathinda, May 18 In another case, a Ferozepur-based resident, Manpreet Singh, and his mother Sheela Kaur have been booked by the police for demanding dowry from his (Manpreet’s) wife Gurmeet Kaur. The police have registered cases under Sections 498A, 406 and 34 of the IPC in both cases, while no arrests have been made in any of the cases. In another case, a resident of Gulabgarh village, Yadwinder Singh, was booked by the Kotfatta police for beating up his wife. In a complaint to the police, the victim, Paramjit Kaur, stated that on the night of May 16, her husband beat her up badly and even hit her on the head with a liquor bottle over some family dispute. The police have registered a case against the accused Yadwinder Singh, his father Teja Singh, mother Manjit Kaur and his sister Neshu under Sections 324 and 34 of
the IPC. Beant Kaur, SHO of the women’s police station, said it was quite unfortunate that matrimonial cases are increasing these days. She also said that in each and every case, they always try to reconcile through counselling. Social activist Raj Gupta said the rising matrimonial cases is a reason for worry in society, as after so much of awareness, people do not understand that dowry is a crime. It is high time people treated their daughter-in-laws as their daughters only, said the social activist. |
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PRTC employees may stage state-level protest
Bathinda, May 18 Jasmer Singh also accused the PRTC officials at the Bathinda bus stand of causing loses to the PRTC by changing the time table of buses and routes to fit in private buses. He also argued that the issue had been brought to the notice of the PRTC general manager at Bathinda but he had failed to take up the matter with the former duty inspector and time-table in-charge, Gurcharan Singh. State general secretary of the union, Rupinder Singh also accused the PRTC officials of breaking the law by changing the time-table frequently. He stated that
as per the rules, private buses are not to be given time-slots between the PRTC buses, but the same was being done at the Bathinda bus stand. The state-level leaders also alleged that the PRTC was running losses since the state government was being partial to the private players in the field. They argued that like the private buses, the PRTC was also paying taxes to the government and yet it was not paying any attention to the organisation. They added that the private buses were being given preference and longer routes over the PRTC
buses. The district president of the union, Harbans Singh Bhola, said the employees were planning to intensify their struggle. The employees demanded removal of Gurcharan Singh from the post of duty inspector and time-table inspector, release of salaries by the 10th of every month and release of overtime by 20th of every month and a staff room for the drivers to rest between trips. |
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Manpreet Badal thanks
supporters
Bathinda, May 18 “Despite police terror, administrative collusion, vote buying, distribution of liquor, fake namesakes and the combined might of the government and the drug mafia, my supporters helped me touch close to 5 lakh votes causing the biggest ever scare to the ruling SAD-BJP alliance in the state,” said Manpreet. “I will remain indebted to the voters of Bathinda forever, who adopted me within hours of the announcement of my ticket,” he said during a thanksgiving round to all the villages, where he had campaigned in the past one month. He said though he lost in term of number of votes by a very thin margin, it was the defeat of the nexus of a corrupt government, mafia dons. He also announced that he would cover all areas where he had campaigned and canvassed and added that the alliance of the PPP with the Congress would continue. He said he would be calling a meeting of the PPP very soon. “The long-term goal is to oust the SAD government in the 2017 assembly elections, and the party has to gear up to achieve that aim,” he said.
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Post election results, which came as a setback to the winning SAD-BJP alliance candidate Harsimrat Kaur Badal, the BJP and SAD leaders are busy blaming each other for the poor show of the Badal bahu who won by a wafer-thin margin and trailed in almost all, barring three-four, of the 202 booths in Bathinda Urban assembly segment.
the earth and a road in Model Town Phase III is posing a serious threat to the motorists, pedestrians and children.
